This invention relates to a stacking and nesting display case.
Cases of various kinds are widely used in industry to transport and display various types of commodities, for example, foodstuffs such as dairy products. Cases of the nesting and stacking type have been utilized because of their ability to nest when empty with other cases of the same construction in a compact group and also because of their ability to be stacked when filled with material one upon the other such that the material in the case can be transported and displayed for sale without being crushed.
Typical nestable stackable cases currently in use will either stack or nest depending upon the orientation of each case with respect to the cases directly above and below. For example, when all the cases are oriented similarly they will stack, but when every other case is rotated by 90.degree. or 180.degree., the cases will nest. This causes some difficulty for those utilizing these prior art cases since each case must be analyzed and rotated properly for stacking or nesting.
Most cases in use now are made exclusively of plastic materials due to the economic advantages of inexpensive molded plastic. Unfortunately, durability and strength have been sacrificed with the continued preference for plastic cases over metal cases. The cases tend to warp or bend and frequently break. This is especially true due to the fact that when stacks of filled cases are placed on pallets the lower case frequently overhangs the pallet causing an unusually large amount of pressure to be placed on a small portion of the case.